Fancy a Date?

Abu Dhabi is noted for being a family-friendly city, one of gardens and greenery and loads and loads of Palm trees.  Not any old Palm Trees.  Every tree around these parts seem to be Date Palms.  They line our streets, our major roads, they are planted in gardens, both public and private.

We are currently in 'date season' where bunches (bunches?) of dates hang off the palm fronds waiting to be picked.  You will often be driving along and see many labourers either climbing the palms and breaking the bunches to fall to the fellows underneath, or see the guys perched under the trees and 'tucking in'.  

If they aren't picked by humans, they fall and rot to the ground.  I have yet to see a bird of any description eating a date (too hot out there for the birds I suspect), but fresh dates can be purchased at any supermarket or picked from the trees themselves.  There are so many date Palms around, there is plenty free for all!

Dates take a big role in Ramadan feasts (which begin late next week) so at the moment there seem to be 'Date displays' in all the major shopping malls.  You think you've seen one date, you've seen them all.  Apparently not.  

I quite like dates, which is a good thing, because Emirati dates are known to be the best in the world.  If I see any recipes with dates in the ingredients I usually bookmark the page ready for me to bake one day.  Can you imagine my surprise when I opened up one of my little Baking Cookbooks and spying a Chocolate and Date Cake?  Of course I had to make it and the result was delicious...

Fancy a Chocolate and Date Cake date?

*snort*